Teaching and Learning Forum 2017

Innovation: Multiple Dimensions in Teaching and Learning

The Teaching and Learning Forum (TLF) is an annual conference, held in Perth, Western Australia. The inaugural Teaching and Learning Forum was held in 1992 and included the five Western Australian universities. Each year since then, the Forum has continued the tradition of bringing together educators from across the higher education sector to share, challenge and develop their ideas about teaching and learning. This event provides an inclusive space for people to explore and disseminate their Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The TLF committee warmly welcomes everyone involved in higher education, from early career academics who may have recently started teaching to experienced researchers.

The theme for 2017 is Innovation: Multiple Dimensions in Teaching and Learning. This Forum aims to include presentations that highlight and explore innovations relevant to higher education. Some topics may include, but are not limited to: curriculum of the future; emerging learning technologies; global collaborations; STEM in higher education; graduate capabilities or students as partners. Where appropriate, presenters are encouraged to be as interactive and collaborative in their presentations as possible.

Program

Keynote Speakers

Professor Teri Balser is Dean of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, where she came after having been a Professor of Soil and Water Science and Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida.

In addition to international recognition as an accomplished research scholar, Teri is widely known in higher education as a change agent and leader in STEM. She is a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a National Vision and Change Fellow with the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education, and was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to India in 2015 to help build capacity for innovative pedagogical approaches.

Professor Balser has received numerous accolades for her educational accomplishments including the USDA/APLU National Excellence in College and University Teaching Award in 2009 and recognition as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 2010 U.S. Professor of the Year (Doctoral and Research Universities). In June 2015 she was announced as one of three finalists for the 2016 $250,000 Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, the largest teaching prize in the English-speaking world.

In addition to her administrative duties and research on classroom climate and engagement, Prof. Balser has long been an active advocate, speaker, and workshop facilitator and regularly delivers workshops and invited talks on women and leadership, active learning, large classes, the impact of fear on learning, and the future of teaching.

Professor Adam Bridgeman - Director of Educational Innovation at The University of Sydney.

After graduating with a BA (Honours) in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, Adam developed a strong interest in learning and teaching whilst teaching at Cambridge and Hull. This led to him being awarded the RSC Higher Education Teaching Award in the UK in 2004. In 2006, Adam moved to Australia to join the University of Sydney in 2006 as Director of First Year Studies in the School of Chemistry. Adam has been involved in learning and teaching methods at the University for a number of years, becoming Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching in 2012 for the Faculty of Science. As well as receiving institutional and national awards for teaching in Australia, he became an Australian National Teaching Fellow in 2015.

In November of 2015, he finally escaped Chemistry to take up this new role in the DVC Education Portfolio at Sydney. His learning and teaching interests focus on the first year experience at university and the personalization of student learning and support in large cohorts. In his new role, he is tasked with invigorating and changing the learning and teaching culture at Sydney through a focus on blended, collaborative and interactive learning styles.